KHOPOTSO: The new National Strategic Plan for the management of HIV and AIDS has at its core the aim of cutting the rate of new HIV infections by half. The plan acknowledges that HIV/AIDS in South Africa affects, in a disproportionate manner, communities that are poor and under-developed.    

PHUMZILE MLAMBO-NGCUKA: The creation of quality and sustainable employment would be a key component of improving people’€™s quality of life, reducing their likelihood of contracting HIV as well as enhancing the capacity of sufferers to cope with the disease, of family members and communities to support people living with the disease. A comprehensive strategy for dealing with HIV and AIDS thus must have job retention and creation as one of its pillars.                    

KHOPOTSO: Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, was quoting from a submission made by the trade union movement, COSATU, to parliament’€™s health portfolio committee seven years ago. The statement remains relevant today. The monster of HIV/AIDS cannot be dealt with without addressing poverty and under-development.    

PHUMZILE MLAMBO-NGCUKA: I, therefore, like to submit that’€¦ the majority of our people, who we seek to empower to fight back, are indeed, poor. Our fight against HIV and AIDS, therefore, must necessarily be about a better life’€¦ and must be viewed as means to save people who often carry the burden of disease in society.

KHOPOTSO: Women bear the brunt of HIV/AIDS and over 60% of those living with HIV are female.

PHUMZILE MLAMBO-NGCUKA: I also want to call on us to focus and unite to conquer violence against women and children. We know the linkage between gender-based violence and abuse and the spread of HIV and AIDS.

KHOPOTSO: In South Africa, research suggests that HIV is largely fuelled by men through violence and risk-taking. This has led to a national cry for men to change behaviour and join the push against HIV/AIDS.

PHUMZILE MLAMBO-NGCUKA: The indifference and the non-action of the so-called good man is unhelpful’€¦ What’€™s good about being an arm-chair revolutionary man? It’€™s an old story that you are not an abuser. The real story is: What are you doing about stopping it?

I’€™m focussing on men because every woman I know is out there trying to do something – not enough – I think more women can join the fight. But we definitely need much more men to be visible in their private and public life’€¦ because if you are a good man and it ends there, that’€™s not good enough.

KHOPOTSO: The Deputy President added that the family unit is critical in influencing the trend of abuse and, thus, HIV infection. She accused families of playing a collaborative role in feeding the cycle of abuse.

PHUMZILE MLAMBO-NGCUKA: Parents and families are guilty of hiding abuse when it happens’€¦ Parents and families are conspicuous by their silence in this fight’€¦ We lament the indifference of parents whose voice we miss in education, in moral regeneration and, indeed, in the fight against HIV and AIDS’€¦ I am saying to the parents’€¦ you are killing the future generation. At the very least, do it at home and take action within, and with, your family. Because of all the good things that you may be doing outside your family, there is one thing that you will remain accountable for ‘€“ your children’€¦ The people who are abusers are somebody’€™s son, somebody’€™s cousin, somebody’€™s nephew. What are we doing as members of the family to rein in these people in our families?              

KHOPOTSO: Mlambo-Ngcuka didn’€™t stop there. She addressed issues that at times make it difficult for those who experience abuse to seek help from legal and health institutions.      

PHUMZILE MLAMBO-NGCUKA: I also want to lament the law enforcers who abdicate responsibility – who will humiliate people who are victims; judges and magistrates who give sentences and make utterances that show their misplaced solidarity with abusers; judges who are apologists for abusers; health officials who fail to care; jail officials who let rapists and murderers escape are all part of the problem that we face and we must tackle this head on as government and as members of the public.        

KHOPOTSO: Mlambo-Ngcuka was speaking shortly before the National Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS was adopted in her capacity as the head of the National AIDS Council. Her utterances illustrate that to prevent HIV infection does not merely depend on the Health Department distributing millions of free condoms every year. We all need to act now to rid the country of social ills and inequalities that place South Africans at risk of HIV. Unless we do so, we will never halve the number of new HIV infections by 2011.